In the original story, Tang San's accelerated promotion to Soul Grandmaster was linked to the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well.
Those two immortal herbs provided him with some Soul Power increase, and cultivating in the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well itself had a multiplier effect.
Not to mention the assistance of Dugu Bo's poison pills for cultivation, it would be difficult for this speed not to be fast.
Now, he neither had immortal herbs nor the assistance of Dugu Bo's poison pills for cultivation, yet he could still advance to Soul Grandmaster a step ahead of Xiao Wu, which truly made Shi Yu feel slightly surprised.
It is worth mentioning that in the current story, Dugu Bo did not abduct Tang San; he beat him up on the spot, so there was no need to abduct him later.
Shi Yu continued to read with curiosity. Next was Tang San and their performance in the Soul Master Competition.
Without the immortal herbs to boost their overall strength, their performance in the competition was not as dazzling as in the original story.
They qualified from the preliminary rounds with a fourth-place finish. When competing with other academies from the Tian Dou Empire for the fifteen spots in the finals, their ranking was not first but third.
They very painstakingly fought for this ranking, and for this, Tang San even exposed his second Martial Soul, the Clear Sky Hammer.
This was even under the circumstance where Tang San obtained the External Soul Bone, the Eight Spider Lances, by hunting a Man-Faced Demon Spider in the Sunset Forest.
Without the help of the Eight Spider Lances, Tang San and their record might have been even worse.
In many matches, he actually relied on his powerful External Soul Bone to defeat his opponents.
It is worth mentioning that Tang San's fourth Soul Ring did not come from a ten-thousand-year underground demon spider but from a five to six-thousand-year-old Man-Faced Demon Spider.
His third and fourth Soul Rings were both obtained from Man-Faced Demon Spider Soul Rings.
The skills provided by two similar Soul Beasts made his skill set less diverse.
However, when used in combination, the power unleashed was truly not inferior to some ten-thousand-year Soul Skills.
Most importantly, he thus obtained the five to six-thousand-year-old External Soul Bone, the Eight Spider Lances.
The Hall of Spirits still sent experts to assassinate Tang San as in the original story, but they did not succeed.
In the matches in Martial Soul City, Shrek Academy also struggled, winning many battles with difficulty.
They almost lost when facing the Star Luo Royal Academy and only achieved the final victory by a very narrow margin.
Their match against the Hall of Spirits Academy was not in the finals but in the semifinals, which showed a difference from the original story's trajectory.
A bigger difference was that they lost this match, stopping at the top four.
That's right, because Shi Yu took away the immortal herbs in the Ice and Fire Yin Yang Well, the overall strength of the Shrek Seven Devils did not improve. They were no match for the Hall of Spirits Academy, being almost completely crushed and suffering a terrible defeat.
This was also related to their mutual heavy losses in the previous match against the Star Luo Royal Academy, with their injuries not yet healed.
Although they lost the match, achieving a top-four finish was already very good for Shrek Academy.
After all, this Academy did not exist before, and even the original Blue Lightning Academy had never achieved such good results.
By a strange coincidence, the Pope did not appear until the final top three, and no Title Douluo from the Hall of Spirits side showed up, which meant Xiao Wu's identity was not exposed.
This meant that the original plot point of surrounding and killing Xiao Wu in front of the Pope's Palace did not occur, and thus the plot point of Tang Hao appearing to save Xiao Wu also did not exist.
"Could it be that the Title Douluo beside Ning Fengzhi or Dugu Bo did not discover Xiao Wu's Soul Beast identity?" Shi Yu felt slightly puzzled seeing this.
Normally, a transforming Soul Beast that hasn't reached maturity is highly likely to be exposed when encountering a Title Douluo; they should be unable to hide.
Shi Yu suddenly thought of Dugu Bo; there was an exception. In the original story, when Dugu Bo appeared in the Tiandou Royal Academy, he was in the same hall as Xiao Wu, but he did not see through Xiao Wu's identity at that time.
This Title Douluo's identification ability is questionable, of course, it's also possible that Xiao Wu hid well.
But there's no reason why a Title Douluo of Chen Xin's level shouldn't be able to see through it; it's impossible that he's also somewhat unreliable like Dugu Bo.
Shi Yu carefully looked at this record again and flipped through the records in other history books, finally getting some clues.
It turned out that Tang Hao had helped Xiao Wu conceal her aura, which was why she hadn't exposed her identity.
This also required Xiao Wu to not make a move as much as possible to hide well.
Xiao Wu did indeed not make many moves, and her not participating was also one of the reasons why Shrek Academy's matches were so difficult.
"The process has been changed, but the outcome is still pretty much the same," Shi Yu thought to himself.
Originally, Shi Yu was wondering how Xiao Wu would die and then be resurrected without the Lovesick Heartbroken Red. It turned out it was changed like this.
Xiao Wu's identity was not exposed at all, and it's highly likely that there won't be any subsequent Soul hunting operations targeting Xiao Wu. Since she didn't die, there's no situation of dying and then being resurrected.
Shi Yu continued to read, still quite curious about the subsequent developments, just like reading a novel.
After Shrek Academy was eliminated in the top four, they left Martial Soul City.
The Hall of Spirits did not take any further action against Tang San, possibly because the Grandmaster's warning to Bibi Dong had some effect.
After the competition ended, Tang San and Xiao Wu graduated from the Academy and left, cultivating under Tang Hao's arrangements.
Tang San underwent a second awakening of his Blue Silver Grass Martial Soul and went to Slaughter City to obtain the Slaughter Domain.
He also met Hu Liena, the Saintess of the Hall of Spirits, in Slaughter City.
However, this time, only Tang San walked out alive. Hu Liena was killed by Tang San, and the Spiritual Head Bone that Hu Liena ultimately obtained also fell into Tang San's hands in this way.
Shi Yu still absorbed this Head Bone as in the original story, but the method of obtaining it was different.
Seeing this, Shi Yu slightly frowned, becoming more and more aware of the world's convergence force.
Even though the trajectory had been changed, it always managed to return to the original trajectory in another way.
For example, Xiao Wu still survived until the end, and both the Eight Spider Lances and this Spiritual Head Bone returned to Tang San.
The subsequent story had some differences from the original story, but overall, they were not significant.
After the Blue Lightning Tyrant Dragon Clan and the Seven Treasures Glazed Tile Clan were annihilated, it was the palace coup of the Tian Dou Imperial family.
Qian Renxue's identity was still exposed, but this time Tang San's involvement in this matter was because of Ning Fengzhi, not entering through Dugu Bo.
Dugu Bo and Tang San had a very difficult relationship. If it weren't for Prince Xue Xing, Dugu Bo would never have briefly joined forces with Tang San in this matter.
Qian Renxue was exposed, her conspiracy was shattered, Tang San obtained the Hanhai Qiankun Cover, and began his journey to Sea God Island.
It is worth mentioning that this history book clearly states that Qian Renxue was defeated by Tang San and Xiao Wu together. Tang San, without a hundred-thousand-year sixth Soul Ring, was no match for Qian Renxue in a one-on-one fight.
The story here is that Qian Renxue wanted to fight Tang San one-on-one, but Tang San saw through her sinister intentions and, after rationally assessing the strength of both sides, chose to team up with Xiao Wu to face the enemy.